[inquiry]

Beginner/Intermediate hand to answer -- anyone above novice, beginners, and intermediates should post their replies as hidden text.

In the past (in 2004), I have made a series of post (just over 20 threads I believe) on hands played on the BBO where where makeable slams were managled by the majority (or all) of the BBO players. Most of those post were in the interesting hand section, but many were in the beginner/intermediate section. The hands all had the same thing in common: 1) most pairs who bid them went down, and 2) everyone should have made them. Many such hands are ideal for beginners/intermediates to study because the number of lines are fairly limited when you have to win all or all but one trick. Here is another one from last where the majority of players in ♣ took only 11 tricks, including those in slam. The play should have been fairly routine.

Scoring: Chicago

N - E - S - W
1♥  Ps  2♣*  2♠
Ps* 3♠  6♣  all pass

2♣ was either GF with ♣'s, or reverse drury, or Balanced 11+

Pass over 2♠ showed either one or 4+♠'s (part of the so called 2/3 dbl convention).

6♣ was the "practical" bid opposite an opening bid with a singleton ♠

Opening lead ♠King

---

[FrancesHinden]

I can't delete a post, but I want to delete what I said, as I don't want to give the game away!

[jocdelevat]

I will play for 3-3 hearts and 2-2 trumps so i take the lead with ace spade then play 9 heart and take with ace. play smal heart for ruff then play ace club and q ueen club for returning back to dummie. playing the reamaing hearts where I can discard the 2 spades and jack diamond.
I thought more complicated ways but each one failed so i took the easy one.

[jocdelevat]

Spoiler

that was dumb to reurn with q club back to dummie a small club can do it too but in my plan didn't mater because i suppose 2-2 trumps.

[plaur]

First impression: ruff a ♠, drop ♦J on ♥AK. Back to hand with ♦A and ruff last spade. Ruff a ♦ back and run ♣ AQ9. If ♣J is 3rd or 4th I get 12 tricks.
The danger sems to be in the last ♦ruff to get back to hand. Ruf low or with the 8? Perhaps another plan is safer?

[mikeh]

I suspect that those who failed fell into 2 groups.

One set tried to make as many tricks as possible, rather than trying to make 12 tricks. Those who played on ♥ are part of this group, altho playing for both ♥ and ♣ to behave is NOT the best line for 13 tricks anyway

The other set saw an easy way to 12 tricks but failed to consider what could go wrong. Had they done so, they would have seen an easy way around.

I hope that what follows is hidden: if not, I apologize... to the B/I players, please 'solve' the problem before peeking

Spoiler

The 'obvious' way to 12 tricks is to ruff a ♠ at trick 2, cash the ♣K and return to hand in ♦ and draw trump. That gives 7 trumps, 2 top ♥, one top ♦, and the ♠A and a ♠ ruff: 12 tricks. Seems okay... but what if trump are 4-0?

We can guard against that by ruffing 2♠.

We are blessed with great trump spots. Win the ♠A, ruff a ♠, win the ♦A, ruff our last ♠, cash the top ♥, pitching our ♦ and ruff a ♦, and draw trump. We lose an avoidable ♣ loser if trump are 3-1 (no stiff J) but we got it back by ruffing that extra ♠. But we survive a 4-0 trump split.

Note that this line is not 100%: if ♥ are 5-1 we may go down: altho we rate to survive unless the ruffer holds either a stiff ♣ or Jxxx: if he ruffs from any other holding, we still get A♠ and 2 ruffs, 7 trump tricks and 2 top red winners. Note that we need to cash our ♦ winner and ruff the last ♠ before we cash the ♥, else a ruff and a trump return leaves us a trick short.

Which line is best? Well, in the absence of information to the contrary, a 4-0 trump break is significantly less likely than a 5-1 ♥ break, but we survive most 5-♥ breaks anyway, so my guessestimate is that the second line is the better...

[han]

Hey, I know this hand, I was dummy! Ben was declaring and I thought he found the best line. I think that that "everybody should make this" is quite optimistic though.

[pclayton]

I'd play the same as Mike and I am wondering what Ben is thinking here....

Side note:

Spoiler

The hand is tougher if your club spots aren't as potent.

[pclayton]

I guess. I've seen a lot tougher problems on the BI section and figured - WHAT AM I MISSING? - instead of just looking at the obvious.

I guess I've misplayed my share of baby hands too.

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Apr 27 2006, 07:26 PM, said:

I guess. I've seen a lot tougher problems on the BI section and figured - WHAT AM I MISSING? - instead of just looking at the obvious.

I guess I've misplayed my share of baby hands too.

Well when this hand was played 12 declearers in ♣'s made only 11 tricks, 5 made 12 tricks. For what it is worth, this was in a tournament billed as one of the toughest on bbo and for advanced players or better. I didn't think the hand was too hard, and the number of people missing it shows it IS a lesson hand for beginners and intermediates. A few simple themes to consider, mikeh did a nice job doing so.

[Walddk]

mikeh, on Apr 27 2006, 06:29 PM, said:

Which line is best? Well, in the absence of information to the contrary, a 4-0 trump break is significantly less likely than a 5-1 ♥ break

Not sure "significantly" is the appropriate word in this context. A priori probabilities are:

4-0 trump break: 9.56%
5-1 heart break: 14.53%

For convenience, let's say 10 and 15 respectively. I suspect that most bridge players don't know those percentages. I do not agree with the headline (Straightforward Play), and I do not agree with Ben's wording when he says:

"The play should have been fairly routine".

For advanced and/or expert players perhaps, but certainly not for beginners and/or intermediates.

Roland

[1eyedjack]

How about:

{Belay that - line already posted}

[inquiry]

The problem raises some issues over what is appropriate level question for beginner intermediate forum.

Roland thought it was was too advanced for beginners/intermediates said:

I do not agree with the headline (Straightforward Play), and I do not agree with Ben's wording when he says:

"The play should have been fairly routine".

For advanced and/or expert players perhaps, but certainly not for beginners and/or intermediates.

pclayton thought it was too easy of a problem for beginners/intermediates said:

I'd play the same as Mike and I am wondering what Ben is thinking here....

justin thought it was forum appopriate said:

I think it's an excellent problem for beginners...(but if this was) adv/expert forum I would also wonder what (ben) was thinking

Perhaps the disagreement above suggest it is a good problem after all. Too easy? Too hard? Just right? For what it is worth (not much), the 12 declarers who took 10 tricks had an average rating as calculated by Bridgebrowser of 50.29 (50.00 is the dead on average score of all BBO players). Four of the five who made 12 tricks averaged 52.97 (the fifth hadn't played enough BBO hands to have an average yet) but three of the four making had BBO ratings 2 points or highest average of those winning only 11 tricks (the 4th had the second lowest rating of all the players who played in clubs). The fact that the players winning only 11 tricks were (as a group) slightly above "average" suggest Roland is probably much closer to the truth here than phil, and that justin was absolutely correct when he speculated that his beginner partners would get this wrong.

[Gerardo]

Reminder for HIDDEN comments:
They need closure at the end, a /HIDDEN between [].
Normal suits are colored, black suits are not, they hide better.

Back to hand, I was in 7♣, playing from the other side, ♠ lead so play was similar. Not a success.

[luke warm]

i'm probably missing something, but i don't see any way to make 12 tricks without

Spoiler

ruffing 2 spades on the board and a diamond in hand, and this should work unless hearts are real bad

[Thymallus]

I am glad this hand was posted as a problem; it is the sort of situation that I struggle with. Far from seeing easy ways to make 12 tricks I see all sorts of ways to fail in the contract.

I would be grateful if a strong player would give me a clue since I now see this hand in front of me when driving to work (I'd rather be concentrating on the traffic!)

At first sight the hand looks easy

Method a) Take ace of spades then ruff a spade, cross to Ace diamonds, ruff a spade, Cash AK hearts tossing the jack of Diamonds from hand. Cross to hand by trumping a diamond and play the remaining trumps from the top dropping the jack of trump if you are lucky and making 12 if not.

BUT if I were to play it this way I know exactly what would happen. The second heart trick would get trumped and the Jack of clubs would not drop when I played the clubs from hand.

So perhaps one should look for a squeeze (i find these really hard to visualise at the best of times) but that looks unlikely since one would have to give up a trick to set up the squeeze and then the pesky opps might kill the heart entry needed in dummy.

Method
If the layout is the one feared in method a) then perhaps ruff one spade, lay down the K of clubs (hopefully preventing the ruff of the 2nd heart trick) and not doing too much harm if the trumps are 2-2). Then if the King of hearts holds up cross back to hand by a diamond ruff, draw trumps and lose the spade at the end.

BUT if I were to play the hand that way the trumps would split 4-0 and I would go down again. Even worse the trumps might be 2:2 and I would lose the king of hearts to a ruff and then lose the spade return. Partner responding with a
"P ??????????????????????" message because line a) would have worked.

Of course, because real life opponents are inclined to get fidgety at the thursday night bridge club when I go into a 48 Hr tank, I would probably play line A and make 11 tricks like everyone else.

I have a horrible feeling there must be a Line c) but I find my mind going round and round between the 2 lines above unable to escape from what seems to be doom whichever way I play it.

Thanks in anticipation

John

[Thymallus]

Forgot to add line c) why one tries to set up dummies hearts but I didn't like that, looked like there would be problems getting to dummy to cash them if it worked (and an earlier post suggested it didnt anyway!)

[sceptic]

Take the K S with the Ace

ruff a small spade with the 10 clubs

back to hand with the A diamonds

ruff a small aspade with the King clubs

play A hearts

K hearts discard my diamond loser

ruff a diamond back to hand and play

AK9 clubs in that order

not sure best way to play for 13 trx but I think this is right for 12 (I hope)